Being Wrenched Back to Current Affairs, Are We?
Didn’t watch the speech. Anyone else? How was it? Do we know?
Update:
Speaking of speeches, I heard a lot about those hearings, but I didn’t hear this:
Telegraph Blogs – Toby Harnden – Obama blows it on Iraq
Well, senators did manage to produce a lot more hot air, posturing and self-aggrandisement when questioning – though really it was speechifying at – General David Petraeus and his diplomatic wing man Ambassador Ryan Crocker.
Most egregious of all the senators was Barack Obama. He whinged about having only seven minutes and then spent nearly all of it delivering made-for-tv soundbites. There was a question about benchmarks there at the end but when Crocker responded that he’d already answered that with several points, Obama (who obviously hadn’t been listening) could only say lamely: “Can you repeat those?”
Sun-Times Blogs – All talk. Windy Obama botches question at Iraq hearing. Lynn Sweet
There is a major discussion going on in the Democratic primary race over the importance of experience — Obama has the shortest track record — and if judgment trumps experience — Obama’s position.
Writing in the July/August issue of Foreign Affairs, Obama says in this tense era, “it is time for a president who can build consensus here at home” in order to chart an ambitious foreign policy course.
At the hearing, Obama complained about the time constraint. But it was his choice not to figure out how to ask even one thoughtful question and leave time for an answer. He chose not to show that he is interested in finding a way to engage with one of the nation’s top generals. He chose not to grill Crocker about the millions of dollars of humanitarian assistance the U.S. is giving to Iraq.
When Obama had a chance he did not use it to show, not tell.
Why does everyone keep expecting that he’s a consensus-building dreamboat-genius, and then get all surprised when he turns out to be an idiot vapid politician in love with the sound of his own voice and then disappointed at the “wasted opportunity” to show that he really is what is as far as I can tell just a figment of the collected imagination?
